Communication amongst healthcare providers is crucial for patient care. Yet, inter-provider communications can be frustrated by difficulties in identifying the right personnel or in coordinating multiple providers, especially in acute settings. To address this unmet need, we piloted a role-based messaging function on our institution’s secure text messaging application and assessed its utility in three different use cases.

We assessed its utility in the different use cases via surveys, qualitative feedback, and observations. We also describe the impact of role-based messaging on endovascular thrombectomy time metrics.

We found that role-based messaging was easy for providers to adopt, with majority agreeing that it enhances clinical care and wishing for its continued use. Usage of role- based messaging also contributed to an improvement in endovascular thrombectomy time metrics.

Amongst the three use cases, we found that the strongest utility was in coordinating multidisciplinary teams for time sensitive conditions. Role based messaging has the potential to improve care especially in time sensitive settings.